TASK FORCE HEAD SEEKS HELP WITH CLUB DRUGS

The director of the local drug task force asked college students for help
Monday in tracking the path of club drugs and rave parties.

Since students and younger teen-agers are the prime market for club drugs,
"you may have a better handle on it than I do," said Kevin Glaser of the
Southeast Missouri Drug Task Force. "If it's a problem, we need to address it."

He talked briefly to a group of Southeast Missouri State University
students who attended an informational lecture by special agent Shirley
Armstead of the Drug En-forcement Administration.

Glaser said until this year Ecstasy has been rare in Southeast Missouri.
The drug has begun making inroads, and last year the task force took down
"a fairly sizable Ecstasy ring in Poplar Bluff" with connections in
Arkansas and Florida.

Similarly, large rave parties, considered to be environments where club
drugs flow freely, are also scarce in this region.

"What we do see is a lot of small ones in Southeast Missouri," Glaser said.
The more intimate environments make it difficult on law enforcement agents
trying to trace the illegal drugs, most of which are imported.

Armstead, who works as demand reduction coordinator with the DEA's St.
Louis office, was brought to campus to talk to students and other area
residents about the dangers of Ecstasy, LSD and date-rape drugs.

Her goal is to educate people about club drugs, many of which have a
dangerous reputation among users as being fairly harmless.

"As a nation, we seem to be in love with drugs," Armstead said. "A pill for
every ill" should be our national motto, she said.

Club drugs are particularly insidious because they appeal to such a young
crowd. Most users are 17 and younger, she said.

Ecstasy is the leader, with eye-catching colors and whimsical shapes and
logos. The danger of the drug includes dehydration, hypertension, heart and
kidney failure and stroke.

Unlike heroin, cocaine or marijuana, Ecstasy is not organic. It's a
man-made chemical originally used as a diet pill.